Hmm ... okay the randomizer files were put into the right folder so no, either they and/or the .car scenes files for the whole enchilada do not work in 8.1.

However the .obj .car files do - kind of. Nothing shows properly until rendered ... and okay, I’m spoiled by D/S which has lights. Sunlight no work in Carrara? Spot light works and shape light works ... massive amount of setup time required so no renders to show for now.

Oh yes, for ? reason the ground doesn’t like being lit??? Spot light works on it but gee whiz. How many lights are “normal” for a Carrara scene?

Thanks for the feedback (and images). I can’t wait to see what Wendy will do with it!

Just a reminder (in case you missed it in the notes), if you use the blocks or the individual buildings in a replicator, just duplicate a few times to generate the Instance Randomizer variations, due to the way Carrara works it does not do this automatically. Maybe in the future…

Hmm ... okay the randomizer files were put into the right folder so no, either they and/or the .car scenes files for the whole enchilada do not work in 8.1.

However the .obj .car files do - kind of. Nothing shows properly until rendered ... and okay, I’m spoiled by D/S which has lights. Sunlight no work in Carrara? Spot light works and shape light works ... massive amount of setup time required so no renders to show for now.

Oh yes, for ? reason the ground doesn’t like being lit??? Spot light works on it but gee whiz. How many lights are “normal” for a Carrara scene?

No Dodo images today ... think Dodo hiding.

Not sure what your issue is with lights but I’d like to help if I can. The full city scenes have a lightdome set up so that it renders quicker than using sky light. There is a main sunlight (or Moonlight for the night scene) and that works for me. If you can let me know your issue in a bit more detail, I’d be glad to help.

Is it possible to create a city in Carrara and then import it into DAZ Studio? The reason I ask is because I want to render a city scene using Octane Render in DS. Atm there isn’t a OR plugin for Carrara. I think I can export the city from Carrara as an obj file to import into DS but what about the textures?

Is it possible to create a city in Carrara and then import it into DAZ Studio? The reason I ask is because I want to render a city scene using Octane Render in DS. Atm there isn’t a OR plugin for Carrara. I think I can export the city from Carrara as an obj file to import into DS but what about the textures?

The product is Carrara only at the moment for a couple of reasons - firstly the clever Instance Randomizer stuff which makes each duplicate of a building different, and secondly because Carrara has a proper instancing system which is what is behind its duplication and replication processes. Each version of a building refers back to the one description of its geometry, which makes large scenes like this possible. In the large scenes there are around 3,200 buildings, so millions of polygons! This would not be possible without Carrara’s instancing.

So you can export an OBJ but you will lose that, and there is no way that DS will import a scene with that many buildings, so start small!

And as you may know, OR for Carrara is under development (and due to the Randomizer stuff, it still wouldn’t work properly “as is” although there may be ways around that - OR 2.0 introduced a very similar facility to make each instance different).

Is it possible to create a city in Carrara and then import it into DAZ Studio? The reason I ask is because I want to render a city scene using Octane Render in DS. Atm there isn’t a OR plugin for Carrara. I think I can export the city from Carrara as an obj file to import into DS but what about the textures?

The product is Carrara only at the moment for a couple of reasons - firstly the clever Instance Randomizer stuff which makes each duplicate of a building different, and secondly because Carrara has a proper instancing system which is what is behind its duplication and replication processes. Each version of a building refers back to the one description of its geometry, which makes large scenes like this possible. In the large scenes there are around 3,200 buildings, so millions of polygons! This would not be possible without Carrara’s instancing.

So you can export an OBJ but you will lose that, and there is no way that DS will import a scene with that many buildings, so start small!

And as you may know, OR for Carrara is under development (and due to the Randomizer stuff, it still wouldn’t work properly “as is” although there may be ways around that - OR 2.0 introduced a very similar facility to make each instance different).

Thanks for your quick response. I really love this product - the point you make about instancing and conserving resources is a great aspect of Carrara that would be wonderful in DS. Without that I can understand that it would be impossible to replicate the same scene in DS.

Perhaps I could export individual blocks from Carrara and then replicate them in Infinito on a flat plane. But then I might just as well use the city blocks I already own for DS like the Stonemason ones. I think the DAZ Octane Render plugin and Infinito work ok together.

Either way I can’t wait for Carrara to get its own OR plugin! It seems long overdue since the last progress update.

Hmm ... okay the randomizer files were put into the right folder so no, either they and/or the .car scenes files for the whole enchilada do not work in 8.1.

However the .obj .car files do - kind of. Nothing shows properly until rendered ... and okay, I’m spoiled by D/S which has lights. Sunlight no work in Carrara? Spot light works and shape light works ... massive amount of setup time required so no renders to show for now.

Oh yes, for ? reason the ground doesn’t like being lit??? Spot light works on it but gee whiz. How many lights are “normal” for a Carrara scene?

No Dodo images today ... think Dodo hiding.

Not sure what your issue is with lights but I’d like to help if I can. The full city scenes have a lightdome set up so that it renders quicker than using sky light. There is a main sunlight (or Moonlight for the night scene) and that works for me. If you can let me know your issue in a bit more detail, I’d be glad to help.

Well ... [newbie alert] ... I said to insert “sun light” and it renders black.
Scene file loads a bunch of lines.
Trying to render bunch of lines freezes program.

I have Carrara 8.1.1 64 bit
Have put the 3 randomizer files in the Extensions folder.
Had to put the scene files under a folder it already recognized [unless I want to tell it everytime I open the program to add a folder ... have no idea why it is not remembering]
W7Pro.
Would love to load the full scene.

RE: my error-plagued installation of PhilW’s product and the randomizer.

Actually, I am finding that the installation issue of Carrara-related products is a more general problem (at least for me). About 5 or 6 months ago, I had removed my Daz store products (including Carrara-related), then re-installed using the DIM default settings. Regarding standard Poser/Studio format products, I’m glad I did it, and everything is easy to find.

But, I am now discovering that my Carrara-related purchases have been spread across several directories that I’m pretty sure I did not create. This is not limited to PhilW’s products. For a Howie Farkes product, I checked DIm and the presets files for were installed under a folder entitled “Carrara 8.5, 8, 7.2, 7 :” , which is in one location, but PhilW’s Addison hair was installed under a folder entitled “Carrara 8.5: ” which is in another. Ringo’s shaders were installed under a folder entitled “Carrara 8.5, 8, 7.2, 7, 6 :”, which if you note closely is different from the first.

These are three different installation places for Carrara content. I am actually finding more. Aaargh. I repeat, I had uninstalled everything then used the DIM default. My intention was to avoid this very problem. Edit - and yes, I need to find all of these locations and add them to the browser.

Worthy of the issue thread, although it is probably a DIM issue more than a Carrara issue.

unfortunately the randomizer failed to work for me,
I have a very odd set up, carrara and the extension folder are om my E drive not my SSD
though all my fenric, inagoni etc plugins show
will need to investigate this further

just not getting it to show, either in extensions or its own folder
no shadowhawk options in my shader room

unfortunately the randomizer failed to work for me,
I have a very odd set up, carrara and the extension folder are om my E drive not my SSD
though all my fenric, inagoni etc plugins show
will need to investigate this further

Hi Wendy, As far as I know, it should work provided it is installed to the Extensions folder of your Carrara installation wherever that is (I am sure that Sparrowhawke will correct me if I am wrong on this). It will also help if Night & Day City is also installed to that directory as it needs to find the textures (<your Carrara folder>/Presets/Textures/PhilW/InstaBuilding Textures).

Hmm ... okay the randomizer files were put into the right folder so no, either they and/or the .car scenes files for the whole enchilada do not work in 8.1.

However the .obj .car files do - kind of. Nothing shows properly until rendered ... and okay, I’m spoiled by D/S which has lights. Sunlight no work in Carrara? Spot light works and shape light works ... massive amount of setup time required so no renders to show for now.

Oh yes, for ? reason the ground doesn’t like being lit??? Spot light works on it but gee whiz. How many lights are “normal” for a Carrara scene?

No Dodo images today ... think Dodo hiding.

Not sure what your issue is with lights but I’d like to help if I can. The full city scenes have a lightdome set up so that it renders quicker than using sky light. There is a main sunlight (or Moonlight for the night scene) and that works for me. If you can let me know your issue in a bit more detail, I’d be glad to help.

Well ... [newbie alert] ... I said to insert “sun light” and it renders black.
Scene file loads a bunch of lines.
Trying to render bunch of lines freezes program.

I have Carrara 8.1.1 64 bit
Have put the 3 randomizer files in the Extensions folder.
Had to put the scene files under a folder it already recognized [unless I want to tell it everytime I open the program to add a folder ... have no idea why it is not remembering]
W7Pro.
Would love to load the full scene.

Have to go out for a few hours but will be back at this tonight.

OK, I think I know what the issue is. “Sun Light” is a distant light that works in conjunction with Scene/Atmospheres/Realistic Sky. The two are tied together, so if you adjust the sun direction in one, it will change the other as well. As you have found, if you don’t have Realistic Sky selected, it doesn’t produce any light! So either select Scene/Atmospheres/Realistic Sky, or use a Distant Light rather than what is called Sun Light if you want to use an atmosphere other than the Realistic Sky one. If you are interested, Tim Payne does a great set of Realistic Sky presets.

The “bunch of lines” you are seeing is because I have set Bounding Boxes as the preview mode in order to speed up the display - it can be slow anyway! You could try going into both the Block Replicator and the Extras Replicator (select them and then select the “spanner” tool at the top right) and change the numbers of replications from 20x16 to something a lot lower and see if that works. With replicators in a scene, it can sometimes appear to have frozen, but it is calculating behind the scenes, so lowering the numbers will give it less to do. You should find the display more responsive too.

Is it possible to create a city in Carrara and then import it into DAZ Studio? The reason I ask is because I want to render a city scene using Octane Render in DS. Atm there isn’t a OR plugin for Carrara. I think I can export the city from Carrara as an obj file to import into DS but what about the textures?

The product is Carrara only at the moment for a couple of reasons - firstly the clever Instance Randomizer stuff which makes each duplicate of a building different, and secondly because Carrara has a proper instancing system which is what is behind its duplication and replication processes. Each version of a building refers back to the one description of its geometry, which makes large scenes like this possible. In the large scenes there are around 3,200 buildings, so millions of polygons! This would not be possible without Carrara’s instancing.

So you can export an OBJ but you will lose that, and there is no way that DS will import a scene with that many buildings, so start small!

And as you may know, OR for Carrara is under development (and due to the Randomizer stuff, it still wouldn’t work properly “as is” although there may be ways around that - OR 2.0 introduced a very similar facility to make each instance different).

Thanks for your quick response. I really love this product - the point you make about instancing and conserving resources is a great aspect of Carrara that would be wonderful in DS. Without that I can understand that it would be impossible to replicate the same scene in DS.

Perhaps I could export individual blocks from Carrara and then replicate them in Infinito on a flat plane. But then I might just as well use the city blocks I already own for DS like the Stonemason ones. I think the DAZ Octane Render plugin and Infinito work ok together.

Either way I can’t wait for Carrara to get its own OR plugin! It seems long overdue since the last progress update.

I don’t know if Infinito uses true Instancing, or whether it just creates duplicate objects - if the latter, it will severely limit the complexity of you scene - but you should try it and see! With Carrara’s duplication and replication, it basically defines a position, scale and orientation of an object and says “We’ll have one of those here as well”, but without the memory overhead of another version of the same object. It is therefore extremely memory effiecient, similar to how Vue populates things with Ecosystems. You can have thousands of versions of a model, with only a tiny bit more system resources than the first instance. Have a look here for one of my old examples:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2KodtcdYeU